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GAB
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GAB

From Anspach he removed in like capacity, in 1817, to the college of Baireuth, of which he became director in 1821. At the death of Hegel he was called to Berlin, to fill his chair as professor of philosophy, and has lived there ever since. Gabler now passes for one of the chief exponents of the Hegelian philosophy. Among the most important of his works are—"Die Kritik des Bewustseins;" "De veræ philosophiæ erga religionem christianam pietate;" "Die Hegelsche Philosophie, Beiträge zu ihrer richligen Beurtheilung und Würdigung."—F. M.

GABLER, Johann Philipp, an eminent German theologian of the rationalistic school, was born at Frankfort, 4th June, 1753, and studied at Jena from 1772 to 1778, where Eichhorn and Griesbach were the professors who had most influence in determining the character of his theological views. In 1785 he was made professor of theology in the university of Altdorf, where he continued to labour for the next twenty years. In 1804 he was called to Jena, where in the first theological chair he was first colleague, and then successor, to his former teacher, Griesbach, who died in 1812; in which office he continued till his death in 1826. His writings, a selection of which was collected and published by two of his sons, in two vols., in 1831, consisted entirely of programmes delivered from the chair, and essays or papers communicated to several theological journals of which he was editor. Of these the most important was a programme, "De justo discrimine theologiæ biblicæ et dogmaticæ regundisque recte utriusque finibus," published in 1787, in which he defined more sharply and accurately than had been done by any previous writer, the functions and character of biblical as distinguished from dogmatic theology, and which may be considered to have laid the foundations of the former as a distinct department of theological science—foundations which have been since built upon in Germany by a long succession of writers, both rationalistic and evangelical. Gabler was a decided rationalist. But, like Herder and Griesbach, he was a rationalist of a grave and earnest character, without levity and intentional irreverence, and still retaining a deep feeling of the religious and moral greatness of Jesus Christ, of his divine excellence and grandeur, though not of his true and proper divinity.—P. L.

GABRIEL (Djabril ben-Bakhtischu), a Syro-nestorian physician, died in 829. His patron, Djaafar, one of the Barmekides, introduced him to the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, who made him his chief physician. Subsequently, however, he lost the favour of the caliph, and during much of the rest of his life experienced in a considerable degree the capricious tyranny characteristic of eastern courts. Gabriel possessed great influence among his coreligionists, and was altogether one of the most distinguished of the illustrious family of the Bakhtischu. He was author of a Syro-Arabic dictionary, and of several books on subjects connected with his profession.—R. M., A.

GABRIEL, Jacques, an eminent French architect. He prepared the plans for Louis XIV.'s château of Choisy-le-Roi, near Paris, which has since entirely disappeared. He died in 1686, while occupied with the erection of the Pont-Royal over the Seine at Paris.—His son, Jacques Gabriel, also an architect, completed the Pont-Royal commenced under his father's supervision. He was born in 1667, and died in 1742. Among the public buildings which were erected under his supervision, were the townhalls of Rennes and Dijon. He was made first architect to the king, and knight of the order of St. Michael.—Jacques Ange Gabriel, born in 1710, and died in 1782, was even more distinguished as an architect than his father and grandfather. The genius which he displayed in his profession procured for him from Louis XV., in 1755, a commission to restore and enlarge the buildings of the Louvre. He held, like his father, the post of first architect to the king.—R. V. C.

GABRIEL SIONITA, a learned Maronite, born at Edden, a village on Mount Lebanon, in 1577; died at Paris in 1648. He was educated at Rome, where he became a professor of theology. In 1614 he went to Paris, and was appointed professor of Arabic in the college of France. According to Lelong, he was not a good specimen of a Syrian scholar, for "he loved good cheer better than work." After the failure of a scheme for printing a polyglott, with the execution of which he was to be intrusted by the college, he was engaged to assist Lejay in his celebrated work. The editor and his assistant before long quarrelled, and the rupture strangely ended in the imprisonment of the latter. When released, he had the further wrong done him of being obliged to give up his precious Arabic and Syriac text to the learned and greedy Frenchman. Among the works of Gabriel Sionita, there is a translation into Latin of Edrisi's treatise on geography, the famous Geographia Nubiensis.—J. S., G.

GABRIELI or GABRIELLI, Giovanni, a musician, was born at Venice, where he died in 1612. He was pupil of his uncle, Andrea Gabrieli, who was also born at Venice about 1520, studied under the famous Adrien Willaert, held one of the organist appointments in the cathedral of S. Marco from 1566 until his death in 1586, and published some meritorious madrigals and ecclesiastical music. Hassler and Gruber, both famous musicians, were fellow-students of Giovanni Gabrieli. Admiring to the utmost his very remarkable genius, they both of them pressed him to visit Germany; but it appears that neither their friendly persuasion, nor the invitation of the distinguished family of Fugger of Augsburg, nor the proffered patronage of Albert V., duke of Bavaria, and that of his son, induced this renowned master ever to leave Venice. He succeeded Claude Merulo in 1584, as chief organist in the cathedral of S. Marco, and filled this office with great honour. His muscianship was highly esteemed by his contemporaries, and his works justify the enthusiastic eulogies of him which were written in his time. His style differs entirely from the Roman school, having little of the fugal character which distinguishes the latter, and depending for its effect rather on melodious grace, than on imitative contrivance. The resources of counterpoint were not, however, strange to this composer, but he employed them more freely in writing for instruments than for voices, and composed rather what he called Researches (Ricercati) on a subject than strict fugues. Upon the whole, he may be regarded as manifesting the same specialities in his art, as those which characterize his countryman Titian in painting; between whose genius and his there appears to have been much in common. The progress of music has placed the compositions of Gabrieli and of his time beyond the sympathy of our generation; but the honour still clings to him of having been the chief of the Venetian school of music, which in its day was not less famed than that of painting in the same city. His works are various, and chiefly consist of madrigals, ecclesiastical pieces, and compositions for the organ.—G. A. M.

GABRIELLE D'ESTREES. See Estrees.

GABRIELLI; a family of Gubbio, a town in the states of the church. The Gabrielli were very powerful as feudal lords in the middle ages. At the head of the Guelph party in their native province, and often called upon by the neighbouring towns to exercise the functions of chieftains and judges, they are often mentioned in the chronicles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.. Many members of the family were distinguished by uncommon energy of character, and by a towering ambition. Carlo Gabrielli, who had usurped supreme power in his native town, was killed by his brother Teobaldo, who was compelled to leave his estates, and seek refuge among the Normans in Calabria. This took place in the second half of the twelfth century. The first personage of note, who subsequently occurs in the records of the family is Cante, who lived in the fourteenth century. He was one of the partisans of Charles of Anjou, and podesta of Florence at the time of the proscription of the chiefs of the Parte Bianca. Dante was one of the victims, and Cante Gabrielli was the chief instrument of his ruin. Two other members of this family, Bino and Filippo, were afterwards elected to the same office by the Florentine republic, and acted in the interest of the democratic party. Filippo fought in 1323 for the Florentines against the Visconti, who were then the most powerful leaders of the Ghibelline party in Lombardy. In 1333, Giacomo Gabrielli, who had formerly been podesta of Orvieto, was summoned to Florence to defend the town against its enemies; and was subsequently invested with the authority of dictator, which he exercised in the most tyrannical manner. He was therefore expelled, but soon after, in 1338, he was recalled, and commenced again the work of tyranny. A conspiracy was formed against him, but the faction by which he was supported discovered the plot, and the conspirators were driven out of Florence. He left the city in 1341, but was again in office as chief magistrate in 1352 and 1357. His son Cante or Cantuccio, who was successively captain, or podesta, at Perugia, Spoleto, Bologna, and Florence, was equally distinguished for his integrity as a magistrate, and for his moderation as a ruler. Not so his son Giovanni, who made himself master of Gubbio in 1349, and in order to maintain his power, had recourse to Bernabo Visconti,